"It's not working." Yea Troy, I know. Jeff's speech about accepting change was good. The show...eh

On the other hand, Community is such an idiosyncratic show, maybe it'll work for other people who aren't me, and that would be great. And this was still OK, it just felt off. (Pierce the most, though I couldn't figure out why Jeff went from being happy to be in Greendale to spending the summer trying to leave early.)

Having a hack Community show within a show to change expectations - 'it's not THAT bad' - might have worked, but we still ended up spending with something designed to be (ironically? if I'm using it right) bad instead of the 'real subplots. Troy & Britta lasted one scene and maybe two minutes.

They still have 12 episodes to see if they can figure out. It's not like I'm going to stop watching now anyway, so they don't really have to figure out anything at all, but one episode is too soon to give up. It took the last crew really 4-5 episodes before Community really started to work. Paintball was great, but it took a while to get to there.

I liked it. Not "top ten episodes" liked it, but I thought it was a fun way to bring the series back while dealing with some of the concerns people had. My favorite thing is that every season opener has had a really on-the-nose observation about how small colleges work, and this one was no exception. The Dean cancelling the only real history course and realizing on the first day of the semester that if it didn't run the school was going to lose "like 40 thousand dollars" encapsulates every scheduling issue I've ever had to deal with.

Originally posted by KJames199I wonder if someone who didn't hear about any of the behind-the-scenes turmoil would have noticed a difference.

That's what I kept thinking, too. It felt like the writers were going out of their way to address what had happened, and it felt obvious to me, but a show as meta as Community would HAVE to address those things, and I'm not sure if I'm being harsh towards some of the gags simply because I know they aren't coming from Dan Harmon. The Greendale Babies parody felt forced, but I feel like I would have loved it in another season. (Really, it should have been given its own episode... imagine if they had burned the stop-motion concept or everyone in 16-bits as a 2 minute gag. I think that would have only been forgivable if it was a faux-clip show, but even then, we'd be screaming for the full Greendale Babies episode.)

I'm sure the show will be fine, but every attempt to feel quirky is going to feel forced at least for a few episodes.

I did love the invasive commercials on Abed TV though, but I also loved when 30 Rock did that too.

Plus, has it been officially announced that this is the final season? It felt pretty clear in the episode, but I don't recall hearing that NBC officially said they aren't picking this show up next year.

I suppose there's always a chance that the ratings in this half season would be good enough that nbc brings them back next year, but I think everyone assumes that's not gonna happen.

This episode felt fast and furious, and it felt like it moved a mile a minute. Lots of laughs. I'm curious if I would have noticed dan harmon was gone if I didn't know it. Or if I would have felt anything was different.

Originally posted by EddieBurkettPlus, has it been officially announced that this is the final season? It felt pretty clear in the episode, but I don't recall hearing that NBC officially said they aren't picking this show up next year.

Originally posted by thereminI suppose there's always a chance that the ratings in this half season would be good enough that nbc brings them back next year, but I think everyone assumes that's not gonna happen.

The new people in charge have hope for a fifth season and wrote the season finale to leave open that possibility. They had a really good theory to explain why it'd happen: the network ratings bar keeps getting lowered, 30 Rock is done, the Office is done, other shows may or may not fail, NBC will some amount of comedies next year and promoting a lot of new ones is a sure case for some of them to fail. (They would not have been aware of the Up All Night problems at the time of this interview, but the greater situation both helps Community's chances and informs why NBC would be working so hard to keep a show that's clearly not working out.)

Community has survived this far due to positive critical reviews, a very loyal fanbase and - most important by far - NBC's failure to develop enough highly watched television to boot Community from it's lineup. NBC is still terrible, so they just need a way to hold onto enough of the first two.

Originally posted by thecubsfanthe network ratings bar keeps getting lowered, 30 Rock is done, the Office is done, other shows may or may not fail, NBC will some amount of comedies next year and promoting a lot of new ones is a sure case for some of them to fail.

That logic is what fuels my hope for P&R. I hadn't considered that Up All Night going Down In Flames was a good thing, but I'll take it.

Originally posted by thecubsfanThe new people in charge have hope for a fifth season and wrote the season finale to leave open that possibility. They had a really good theory to explain why it'd happen: the network ratings bar keeps getting lowered, 30 Rock is done, the Office is done, other shows may or may not fail, NBC will some amount of comedies next year and promoting a lot of new ones is a sure case for some of them to fail. (They would not have been aware of the Up All Night problems at the time of this interview, but the greater situation both helps Community's chances and informs why NBC would be working so hard to keep a show that's clearly not working out.)

Community has survived this far due to positive critical reviews, a very loyal fanbase and - most important by far - NBC's failure to develop enough highly watched television to boot Community from it's lineup. NBC is still terrible, so they just need a way to hold onto enough of the first two.

The question is whether Community's fanbase sticks around in the post-Harmon era. If nothing else, I agree this does bode very well for Parks & Recreation since that show has the same creative team, is still as popular (amongst its own core fans) as ever and is still as good as ever.

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball